While we might be getting mixed messages on what the Minnis administration’s policy position on oil drilling in Bahamian waters is, Opposition Leader Philip Brave Davis said his administration’s policy position on this critical issue would be clear.
Davis said if the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) assumes office, it would be supportive of drilling for oil in Bahamian waters if two key questions are positively answered: “My position would be — first of all, I was part of the regime that transformed the archaic law as it relates to oil drilling and once the law is complied with, the question that I would ask myself is whether it could be done in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way; and if that answer is yes, the second question I would ask myself is if the arrangements that would be entered into with the developer, if that is going to have significant benefits to the Bahamian economy and its people, and once those two key elements are in place, why not drill?”
Davis suggested there is a widespread misperception about the level of risk attached to oil drilling.
“Etched in many of our minds when we hear about oil drilling is this picture from these cowboy movies where people drill for oil and once they hit the oil it is gushing out of the ground,” he said. “That’s the only picture we have about drilling, but that’s not the case anymore because of the modernization of drilling today.”
How any administration — whether it be the Minnis administration, a Davis administration if the PLP is elected, or any other future administration — will handle the question of oil drilling down the road might depend a lot on the outcome of an exploratory drilling exercise Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) is about to embark upon near Cay Sal Bank any day now.
It is difficult for the opposition leader to dodge conflict of interest claims on this issue, however.
Davis, an attorney, said he represented BPC as it was attempting to secure licenses under the first Christie administration, which it eventually secured. He was not in Cabinet at the time.
“There was no conflict, but you know how our politics operates, because I’m PLP and I’m in the House and I represent this company. I didn’t need that, so I told my clients that they need to find other lawyers and they went and found other lawyers,” he said.
Ahead of the 2012 general election, then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham revealed that Davis and the PLP Leader Perry Christie, also an attorney, had both had ties to BPC.
Christie, hitting back at conflict claims, promised to hold a referendum on oil drilling if elected. He was elected, but he did not follow through on that pledge.
We asked Davis whether this is an issue his administration would put to a referendum. He said, “You just have to follow what the law is, what the Petroleum Act says, and what the regulations say and once you conform to those, you let the rule of law run its course and the law doesn’t call for a referendum.”
Minnis in opposition had been extremely critical of the Christie administration’s stated position on a referendum, insisting that the government, not the electorate, needed to make a decision on the matter.
Davis said that as deputy prime minister it was his view that updated legislation on this issue was critically needed before BPC was allowed to proceed with anything it wanted to do.
In 2016, the Petroleum Act was passed and the Petroleum Offshore Environmental Planning and Protection regulations were promulgated – mandating, among other requirements, that BPC secure an application for an environmental authorization in order to proceed with its project.
That authorization was granted in February 2020 and is the subject of a legal challenge mounted last week by environmental groups Waterkeeper Bahamas Ltd. and Save the Bays.
BPC’s licenses with the Bahamian government permits the exploratory drilling exercise, but it is not guaranteed to get approvals to exploit the resource if it is found to be available in commercial quantities.
Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis said on Friday he is totally against oil drilling and his government is only allowing BPC to go ahead with the drilling because it could not legally get out of the commitment previous administrations made to the company.
Davis believes Minnis’ explanation was a cop out, however.
“I think he is just pandering to the politics of the issue,” the opposition leader said.
“He wants to be on the side that suggests that he is environmentally friendly, but what you can call upon him to do is to be more transparent in what he is doing.”
He added, “I would have expected that the government would have renewed the arrangements or extended the arrangements to allow them to be in a position where they are drilling now. So they (the government) can’t say that they were stuck by anything because … they had sufficient input in this to decide what they want to do or not do, and if they agreed for them to go and drill, well that was the position of the government.
“They should not be pointing a finger at any place else or at anyone else.”
Davis said the Minnis administration should make public all agreements the Bahamas government entered into with BPC, including extensions on licenses, and should also make available to the public the legal opinion it is proceeding on in its conclusion that there was no way the government could break its agreement with the company.
Attorney General Carl Bethel told us on Sunday the licensing agreements “are not public documents”.
Davis seemed equally astounded as we were by that statement, saying such agreements are structured based on statutory requirements and are public documents.
We asked him why agreements and extensions provided by the Christie administration cannot be readily accessed by the public.
Davis said as he was not in Cabinet at the time the licensing agreements were entered into, he could not speak specifically to the matter.
The post Here’s how a Davis administration would handle the oil drilling issue appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/heres-how-a-davis-administration-would-handle-the-oil-drilling-issue/
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